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Review 8/6/2009
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We took our cat in due to swelling in the rear legs. Dr. Matt Costin of the Los Feliz Small Animal Hospital indicated that he was unable to find any reason for the swelling. He literally said he had `no idea what the problem could be.` He advised us to go home and see if the swelling would go down. It did not. After a month, and an increase in the swelling to include the other rear leg we returned to his office and saw another doctor who referred back to xrays which had been taken during the previous visit with Dr. Costin. The second Dr. pointed out a sub lumbar mass that was not only visibly clear but explicitly noted in Dr. Costin's notes from the previous appointment a month earlier. During the first appointment Dr. Costin made no mention of the mass though he clearly knew of it. In the file which we later obtained he specifically elaborated that there was a sub lumbar mass, though again; at the time he very specifically told us that he had no idea what the problem could be. As it turns out this mass was a fatal form of lymphatic cancer that if treated at the time of our original appointment with Dr. Costin might have been successfully eradicated. Being that it is an aggressive form of cancer, the month that we were misled into waiting was a death sentence to our cat. At the very least this is willful misrepresentation of a serious condition affecting a pet which we have had for 15 years and which we consider a member of our family. In consulting with other vets in an attempt to treat our pet they were shocked and disgusted that Dr. Costin did not alert us to the existence of the mass which has resulted in the untimely death of our cat.
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